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Is the Queen Dead?

Is the Queen Dead?

Mystery

Welcome back guardians. I have previously mentioned that I did not think the Queen of the Reef, Mara Sov is dead and today I wanted to expand on this.

Mara Sov is one of the most mysterious and powerful characters in Destiny and to emphasize this, this video will begin with a short resume of her achievements during the Reef Wars, followed by my thoughts to whether she is still alive. This is Myelin Games and I hope you enjoy this latest Destiny Lore episode.

For those of you who started Destiny with the release of the Taken King, you may not know much about the Reef Wars. However, like The Taken King had the Book of Sorrows, which told the story of the Hive and Oryx, the House of Wolves DLC had The Maraid, a collection of Books, chronicles in fact, that told the story of the Queen and Reef Wars.

The Reef Wars began just prior to the Battle of Twilight Gap. The Battle of Twilight Gap was an attack lead by the House of Devils, who combined forces with other Fallen houses. At this point in time, the House of Wolves were not on Earth and we in transit to assist the other Fallen houses to take the City.

This level of cooperation between the Fallen Houses had not been seen before. The Queen became aware of this risk because her brother, Prince Uldren, the Master of Crows, had cracked Fallen encryptions and was able to listen to the transmissions broadcasted by the Fallen. Although they could not understand the transmissions, it became very clear, that the Fallen Houses had united in order to destroy the City. If the House of Wolves reached Earth, further strengthening the Fallen forces, the City would crumble.

It is at this point, that the Queen of the Reef, Mara Sov decides to intervene and prevent the House of Wolves reaching Earth. The Maraid, Book VII Chapter 10, makes it clear that the Queen and her Awoken in the Reef were hidden from the Fallen and had no obligation to reveal their position to protect Earth, however she did and consequently the Reef Wars began.

The House of Wolves were no small fleet, the Maraid, Book VII Chapter 10, states that “their army was hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions strong.” Despite being outnumbered, the Queen scattered the Fallen forces and destroyed half the fleet, so potentially, half a million Fallen, in addition she killed Virixas the current Wolf Kell. This immense destructive power was achieved by unleashing the Harbingers. Not only did this destroy the Wolf fleet but also obliterated the asteroid, Ceres, which was the asteroid that the fleet was refuelling and re-grouping on.

Later in the Reef Wars, the Queen would claim another decisive victory by using an asteroid to her advantage. Prince Uldren uncovered a piece of information from the Wolves’ transmissions that seemed unimportant, however it revealed that the House of Wolves had incorrectly calculated the trajectory of the asteroid Bamberga. The Queen’s Paladin, Imogen Rife made use of this and chased, Drevis, the Wolf Baroness directly into the path of the asteroid, destroying some of Drevis’s ships and allowing her capture.

Another battle would follow, known as the Siege on Pallas. The Queen’s Paladin, Imogen Rife had captured the Wolf Baroness Drevis and they were locked in stalemate on the asteroid Pallas. The House of Wolves and the Queen’s forces were hesitant to break the stalemate for fear of collateral damage; the Queen did not want to lose her Paladin and Skolas did not want to lose his Baroness.

A number of events occurred that broke the stalemate, however one of the final acts that gave the Queen an advantage was the creation of visual illusion. The Techeuns and the Crows created a visual illusion of the Harbingers, so the Wolf fleet thought that the Queen had decided to cut her loses, willing to blow up her own forces on Pallas, in order to take out Drevis. Consequently, the House of Wolves, who had already seen the destructive power of the Harbingers at their first encounter, scattered and broke lines, giving the Queen the opportunity to sweep in and end the siege.

The last notable battle of the Reef Wars was the Fortuna Plummet. The Queen was so pleased with the Battle of Bamberga, where they chased the Wolf fleet into the path of an asteroid, that it inspired the creation of a new weapon. The Carybdis. This is a gravity weapon that was strong enough to throw asteroids off course.

Towards the end of the Reef wars, the Queen tracked Beltrik, the Veiled, to the asteroid Fortuna. Here, the Queen used the Carybdis weapon to throw another asteroid, Tinette, into Fortuna, destroying both and crippling Beltrik’s forces. Beltrik was captured in the ensuing chaos.

In summary, during the Reef Wars, the Queen, destroyed at least half a million Fallen using the harbingers, she used an asteroid on two occasions to destroy fallen fleets, one even involved the use of a gravity weapon and she used visual illusions of the Harbingers to gain an advantage in battle. Not to mention that she killed or captured all of the Wolf nobility, with those captured being held in the Prison of Elders and upon ending the Reef Wars she was declared Wolf Kell.

The Queen not only possesses extremely powerful weapons but she is one of the greatest tacticians in Destiny. She is surrounded and supported by strong leaders in the form of her Paladins, she is supported by equally mysterious and powerful beings in form of the Techeuns and she has a highly skilled espionage team in the form of the Crows, lead by Prince Uldren.

She knows how to enter the Black Garden, a place that does not exist on map of time and space and she knows the location of the Nine, as she sends Skolas to the Nine as a peace offering. Without even presenting any new grimoire cards from the Taken King, you can see why I think it would be unlikely that the Queen willing took on a suicide mission.

There are three cards which I believe reinforce that the Queen is not dead. The first is the Telesto grimoire card, where Paladin Kamala Rior has conducted a search and rescue mission to recover the Queen following the battle with Oryx and is promptly told by Petra Venji that it is not her duty to declare the death of the Queen, “at this time.”

The second card is the Coven. This card details the meeting between, the seven Techeuns and the Queen on the eve of war. The Coven mother, Illyn wears an amulet around her neck that grants her abilities similar to that of the Queen, specifically visions beyond the Veil. Visions beyond the veil is very similar to the “Opening of the Veil”, which has been documented to be caused by Future War Cults experimental device that appears to grant visions of the future.

I believe the general consensus is that the Veil leads to another Universe and I also spoke about this in my Telesto video and how the Harbingers may have been summoned from this universe. The first paragraph of The Coven grimoire card says this,

“The Seven of them were rarely in a room together anymore, but this was the eve of their greatest journey, a plan that overcame death and spanned universes.”

The grimoire cards have only ever spoken about visions beyond the veil or opening the veil, I consider this like if you were sitting in a room and there was a window that looked outside, the room would be our universe and the outside would another Universe, the curtain on the window would be the Veil, Future War cult, Warlock Thanatonaught, The Coven and the Queen try pull back the curtains/the veil to see into the other Universe, however no one has tried to walk through the door… well, maybe Toland and Osiris have.

So I believe the Queen and The Coven were discussing a plan to fool Oryx about their deaths by transitioning to this other Universe.

I also think that this is reinforced in the Aftermath grimoire card, which details Prince Uldren’s crash landing following the battle. The Techeuns and the Queen appear to have the ability to communicate telepathically as detailed in the Coven grimoire card and Prince Uldren seems to have a similar ability, where he tries to sense the presence of the Queen. In a trance and state of focus, he tries to hone in on the Queen and he appears to find something, “a hum of starlight”. I believe this is a reference to the Queen and evidence of her ongoing existence, even if it may be in another universe.

The specific use of the word “Starlight” has significance to the Queen. Let me read to you one of the Queen’s most memorably quotes as the Reef Wars started. “Starlight was my mother… and my father was the Dark.”

With Destiny 2 just announced for a 2017 release and major DLC drop later this year, do you think the Queen will return or even do you want the Queen to return? If so, leave the comment, “Starlight”. Once again it has been pleasure, this is Myelin Games, peace.